1

Buzzing sounds of cheerful young adults filled the sushi bar. Kazuki did not expect his day to take a turn like this, but here he sat, still not over the day's events.

The bright, orange ambience of the restaurant as well as the poppy tunes being played over the speaker did little to get him over what happened just half an hour ago. Neither did the plates of sushi in front of him and the two student council members.

In contrast, the cheerful environment and the sound of the songs served to remind him of the verbal spat with Kimura.

"I see you brought a new guest here today, Saito."

"Hahaha, can't have too many new customers, Uncle," answered the student council president to the white-haired man dressed in a suit. He glanced over his shoulders and gave another look to the filled tables and the density of people in the establishment before returning to the white-haired man. "I see that business is booming, too."

"Well, thank you. There's a reason you're one of my favorite customers. Natural Selection owes you a lot."

"Don't mention it. The food here is great and really affordable. Perfect for introducing fellow schoolmates to the wonders of your bar."

Kazuki saw the white-haired man turn to him with a grin.

"How are you enjoying the food? Are you a student council member? A clubmate, perhaps?"

Kazuki did enjoy the food, but the man was correct on neither of the guesses. The last question initially took him by surprise, but he just remembered a while ago that Saito had pretty much become an honorary member of the engineering club.

"It's great. Really. I'm just a schoolmate of his though. A lowerclassman."

"Ohhh," replied the man with a nod. "Okay, I'll get back to work now. Please enjoy your food."

"Oh, and Saito, let's talk afterwards, okay?" he said before he finally left the trio behind.

Things settled down in the students' table, and everyone went back to eating and drinking quietly. The awkward silence was broken when Saito slammed his glass on the table.

Saito proceeded to slide the glass over, raise his hand, and loudly guffawed.

Kazuki was caught off guard, and he was sure that it showed in his facial expression when the student council president began talking to him. Bloomenfled, meanwhile, was none too pleased with this development.

"Come on, man, you have to stop looking so gloomy and down all the time. I get what just happened, but even before that incident, you were always like that in school."

"I guess it's just part of my personality, that's all. No need to force positivity in."

"Look, I've been student council president for two years now, and I've known a lot of you guys already. Even compared to your regular mode, I can sense something, and I would feel bad if I, as the student council president, won't be able to lend a helping hand."

He paused for a while, presumably to gather his thoughts.

"You know you can trust your good old student council president. I'm trying my best to help everyone, and you're part of the Fuyusato family as much as my fellow members."

"You're heavily associated with a person that he's not in good terms with, for one," interrupted Bloomenfled. The glasses-wearing member of the student council had kept to herself the entire time until now, and her intervention was as expected – straight to the point and frank.

"As for what's got him down... If I were to guess, I think it has to do with that idol. Poor guy probably snapped back at something, and that girl just stormed off."

Saito just laughed it off. "That's Bloomenfled for ya. Eh – How did you realize it, anyway?"

"Him snapping back? Or the girl being touchy and petty over the smallest of things? The former I can attribute to my idea of Arata's personality. The latter... Chalk it up to experience. Just two days and she's already gotten off the wrong foot with some people."

Welp. It did not take too long for Kimura to run into trouble, as expected.

Kazuki kept those thoughts to himself as he continued to listen to the two seniors.

"Anyway, it's not that easy to get Arata to open up and tell stuff to us, President. In addition to the first reason, wouldn't he wonder why you'd be suddenly asking a stranger to eat out while trying to help him? It's suspicious if I were to put myself in his shoes."

Bloomenfled drank her cup of tea the moment she finished. She talked no more, having said her piece.

"Is that really what you felt?" asked Saito.

"I'd be lying if I said no."

"I guess it's really hard, right? In a world like this, it would be hard to imagine strangers just randomly helping each other in a way like this."

"I certainly think so, President. After all, it is the truth in this world that no one does things out of sheer good will. Even the best actions are motivated by a self-serving purpose."

"And what would those be?" amusedly asked the student council president.

"Feeding a sense of responsibility. Satisfying a selfish desire that comes as a result of good being done. Getting something in return. Erasing the possibility of guilt and regret should such deeds not be done. The list goes on."

Kazuki clearly saw a shift in the eyes of the student council president when he finished. He was not sure whether the upperclassman was caught off-guard or what.

"You have to consider that even the most self-serving motives, if they push you to do good, are far better than not doing good at all. Don't you agree, Arata?" he continued right before gulping down a piece of sushi that lay between the two of them.

"I agree," replied Kazuki, who leaned back against his chair in a relaxed position. "But that does not answer my main concern. Why would you bother helping a relative stranger out and doing all this?"

"You already said the answer, my friend."

"Hmm?"

"Being a member of the student council, its president no less, gives me special perks. Power is right at my fingertips as far as school is concerned. Respect gravitates towards my position, and we members of the student council get special privileges just because of our status."

He cleared his throat before resuming.

"For starters, I used my position to feed my interest in science and technology. Imagine me as just an ordinary student without any ties to the Ishida Conglomerate or the student council. Surely I would have to go through hoops just to be as involved with the engineering club the way I am right now. Those guys hold me in high regard."

He continued by pointing a thumb at the foreign girl beside him.

"Bloomenfled would not be able to share her love for the arts and have people lining up just to give her validation and feedback had she not be in the position that she is right now. If anything, her uptight attitude with school rules would have gotten her into even more fights with people like Amamiya already."

Kazuki more than knew what the upperclassman was talking about. It couldn't just be coincidence that Saito used those examples when he was thinking in the same wavelength about Kimura and her audacious request and behavior.

"The point is, I do not think that we, as human beings, should be selfish and simply revel in our power. Being in the position that I am in, I think that it's my responsibility to offer a helping hand to as many people as possible."

He then stopped his own speech with a toothy grin directed to Kazuki.

"Through your lens, Arata, you could consider it a selfish desire. A reason to make myself feel better and less guilty about having power and using pull to my advantage. But as I told you, as long as the means and the end are for the sake of good, what does inner desire matter?"

Having heard and learned so much from this person, Kazuki now felt that this person was someone that he can be slightly comfortable with. He still did not entertain the idea of dropping his guard yet, but besides the association with Ishida, he saw no red flags from this person.

Surprisingly, he even found himself agreeing with a lot of the student council president's thoughts.

"You didn't have to do all this for me."

"But is that the truth, Arata? Is that what you really think?"

It was Bloomenfled's turn to rejoin the conversation. "Or are you answering like that because you have shut yourself out from the world, Arata?"

With her eyes shut, she resumed with a firm and serious voice.

"You cannot accept the results of that incident and let it drain what's left of your self-esteem and desire to make and build connections. Is that correct? Even when you needed help, you had no one to turn to until someone who knew and understood you voluntarily extended their hand."

She was mostly correct. Had she said those words months ago, it would have been completely true. However, Kazuki knew that he had begun to change in that regard. Bit by bit.

Images of Amagi, Shiki, and finally Uehara came into his mind as he pondered what the female senior said.

He chuckled before taking a bite out of another piece of sushi lying around. "That hurt, you know."

"Good. It is through those pains that we grow as people. In my country, there is a saying that life is pointless if everything just goes the way we want. A solved puzzle has no potential and is as good as dirt."

Bloomenfled's words struck Kazuki in ways that he never expected. Just like that, he felt the impact of Shiki's punch at Tenka Peak again. He also recalled the thrill he had when he chose to give up his monotone life and took a leap into Mu for the first time.

"I see that you're responding pretty well. I'll let the president take over."

Instead of immediately speaking, Saito looked at his seatmate with wide eyes, and his hands were in the midst of clapping before he realized that it's his turn to talk.

The conversation had helped Kazuki realize something. Perhaps the key to letting Kimura understand everything would be to find a way to make her let her guard down.

Throughout all their encounters, all Kazuki had done, whether intentional or not, was agitate the idol. Of course she would react that way when he finally snapped at her.

Granted, she was doing something wrong out of spite, but he could also have taken things in a different approach for a more favorable result.

Before Saito's mouth opened, Kazuki stood up. "There's no need for that, president. I know what I must do with Kimura now. Thanks for the help."

"With pleasure. Hahaha," laughed Saito. "Feel free to excuse yourself. I still have to have a long talk with Natural Selection's manager."

Kazuki went up to leave before he felt a grip on his arm.

"One last thing. Don't sweat it too much with Ishida. I know you aren't in the best of terms, but the man's been going through a lot. What he did and is doing to you are unacceptable, but we're doing our best to help him find his way."

Kazuki simply forced a smile at Saito. Those words would not be able to convince him to let go of his differences with Ishida, but he can tell that the upperclassman meant good, and he responded appropriately.

2

The moment that he said his farewells and stepped out of the sushi bar, he looked at the darkening sky and the nearby establishments.

"Sorry, but I would be coming home late today, Big Bro. I know! I'll just make it up to you with your favorite pork cutlet meal tomorrow!"

"Talk about a lucky break," he thought loudly as he recalled Hikari's words this morning and knowing that he would not have to make up an excuse as to why he's not coming home on time. "Now, where to?"

As if fate answered his question, he felt a jolt of lighting kicking in and flowing through his body. It was definitely not the answer that he was looking forward to, and he felt his skin crawl upon sensing the opening of a Fragment.

"Ms. Sadohara did not say that a Fragment would be opening up on South Quinn Street!"

It was a bad premonition. He had a really bad feeling about this, and it reminded him of the one in Aria Alley a few days ago.

Worse, neither Uehara nor Amagi were in the vicinity.

Kazuki realized that he had no time to call them up before it's too late. There's no time to waste, and he had to stop the Class B inside before the Fragment can expand and suck people in.

Tracing the location of the Fragment through his senses, he hurriedly made a run for it.

3

Nothing could have prepared Kazuki for his arrival into the Fragment. The moment his feet touched the stiff and smooth ground, he doubled in surprise.

Strangely enough, the ground that he stood on was definitely not the rocks and arid ground that he was used to stepping on whenever he entered a Fragment in Shiroki City.

It was smooth. Like marble floors that one would find in office buildings.

Instead of being transported into ruins or the ancient city, it seemed that he had been thrown into a building.

"This place..."

He turned around only to find himself staring at another teenager with black hair and bangs over one eye in the distance. Glancing past that mirror, he spun around to see the same boy, but this time with a distorted figure.

It all clicked as to where he had been transported into. He landed in a room with multiple corridors around him laid out in a symmetrical fashion.

"A house of mirrors."

He clicked his heels impatiently while looking at warped transformations of himself of all kinds. A house of mirrors was the last thing that he expected when he took that jump into that veiled portal near the biggest arcade in South Quinn Street.

"Another damn maze again. I really hate dungeon crawling, for the love of God!" he complained while scratching his hair.

As he calmed down, he looked around the dimly lit room, and he also noticed that there were no windows and seemingly nothing that could connect him to the world outside, if it existed.

Inside the confines of this structure, there was no sign of the red sky nor the signature suffocating air inside a Fragment. However, the one thing that remained consistent was...

"Nullities, but how will they appear this time?"

Kazuki stood in place, anticipating those shadowy creatures spawning from the ground like what they did. When none came, he stepped forward and stared at a mirror.

He stared intently at his own reflection, paying attention to every distorted detail that he can see on the mirror.

"Could it be? Mobs tend to hide inside these things, after all."

He continued staring intently, and at the very moment, he felt that his own reflection smile back at him. It's a horror game cliché, and one that often preludes a screamer, but as soon as Kazuki stepped back in a defensive position, the reflection returned to normal.

That one second did make his skin crawl, and it all but confirmed his suspicions. To add further fuel, he felt the sensation of a Nullity's presence strengthen, and low growls filled the area he's in.

With mirrors everywhere, the sound bounced off every direction, and he failed to detect where the Nullity would come from. Which one among these mirrors housed the Nullity?

Then he saw it at the corner of his eye.

The shield materialized on his hand almost immediately, and along with its summoning, Kazuki's left hand swung through the air horizontally.

*crunch*

His chopping motion caught the head of a Nullity and sent it crashing to the ground. The shadowy humanoid figure rolled across the ground, having been caught off-guard by the sudden strike.

It materialized from the ground. But the mirrors...

Kazuki stared back at the mirrors placed beside each other, and he saw no trace of the Nullity there. Just his reflection.

That just made things even more troublesome. Just when he thought he can use the mirrors as a way to watch his back. He looked at the Nullity as his Armament transformed.

Wielding his Armament, now in its bladed shield form, he charged at the Nullity, aiming to finish it off in one blow.

4

Kimura shuddered. All the previous frustrations have suddenly vaporized from her, being replaced by sincere confusion and anxiety. She clutched her clothes while looking at the mirrors she passed by.

The last thing that she remembered was renting a private singing room at a nearby arcade.

However, just when she was at her happiest entering the chorus of one of her favorite pop songs, she felt dizzy. The dizziness continued, and it felt as if her entire being was being crushed by some kind of pressure.

When she regained consciousness, she had found herself in this strange world.

Strange would not even begin to describe how she felt about this maze full of mirrors. She had also heard some intermittent growls and strange sensations that forced the hair on her body to stand up on end. The girl could have sworn that she saw some shapes move along the floor and across the mirrors like shadows.

Nothing came out of those, surprisingly, and she had the chance to stop in large rooms that the corridors connect to each other for occasional rest.

The breaks gave her time to recall the events that transpired earlier.

Those words that appeared on the screen as she scrolled through the comments section still stung her. She never thought that mere written words can hurt so much, and as far back as she can remember, she had never faced such an intense backlash from fans.

Fans adored Yuki-tan. She had everyone wrapped around her fingers, and while there were some scum on the comments section before, it only took a couple of seconds before fans would push them back... or her manager would do the honors in defending her.

Now, it seemed that there were far more negative comments to be pushed back. Some had even invaded her private inbox.

What's wrong with an idol being in a relationship anyway? It was all intended to be a cutesy joke, but she never imagined the grave consequences.

Still, if she managed to pull off an amazing performance. If she can prove to be a great singer and not just wow the crowds with her character, she might be able to convert more fans to love Yuki-tan. Public opinion could turn around.

More importantly...

"The nerve of that guy. Who does he think he is standing up to me like that?" grumbled Kimura to himself. "An idol of my stature deserves more respect. He and all these haters can collectively go screw themselves."

Something continued to bother her. She cannot put her fingers to it, but she just cannot get that classmate off her mind. She wanted to hate him, but despite all of her words, something with his words struck deep into her heart.

There's just something about his delivery or how he just didn't care whether she's an idol or not. He's completely awkward and frank to a fault, but she knew she found the very smallest bit of charm in that brand of honesty.

She shook her head repeatedly to force those thoughts away and focus on the matter at hand. After all, what lay in front of her is a strange world that she never recalled seeing before.

She was at wits' end in trying to understand how she arrived here in the first place. All the while, a voice in her head simply urged her to get a move on. It seemingly possessed her, and as she tried to focus on it, she could feel something pulling at her heart.

She rested and took a deep breath, taking in more of the world that she had found herself in. After several breaths, she took one final one.

"Aaaahhhh! Where the hell am I?!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, all her attempts at remaining calm finally evaporating. "I want to go home!"

What she heard in response was just her shrill voice, bouncing off each and every one of the mirrors to create an echo chamber around her. It gave her the gross feeling of discomfort as she shut off her eyes.

"Anyone? Manager? Guys?!" she called out. Despite knowing that they won't come, she still muttered their names in hopes that they might snap her out of this nightmare.

None came, as expected, and Kimura just crashed with her back against one of the mirrors, her hands dropping to the ground.

Blankly blinking at the reflection in front of her, the girl's vision blurred. With each difficult breath, she continued staring at the person in front of her.

Perhaps this was all a bad dream, and once she wakes up, she will be back in the arcade, back to being her regular self. She had been going through a rough time, but that's nothing compared to the isolation and the despair this place was making her feel.

As her vision continued to blur, she found her body losing strength.

She was never hurt in her time here, but only now did she realize how debilitating the mental toll on her can become.

The last of her vision began fading, with incoherent words fizzling out of her lips. Just before she faded into unconsciousness, she saw a figure form over her reflection.

She fought her eyes from closing, and before they shut for good, she saw it.

The shadowy figure had completely replaced her reflection.